Saturday, July 09, 2016

Superb defence of European men's title by Scotland, 5-2 win over Swedes in Final

SCOTTISH GOLF NEWS RELEASE

By ROSS DUNCAN

Scotland’s
men’s team were celebrating a superb defence of the European Amateur
Championship title after an emphatic 5 – 2 victory over Sweden in the
final at Golf de Chantilly in France today.

Playing
in their third final in the last four years, the Scots captured their
eighth European title in style with Australian Amateur Champion Connor
Syme clinching the winning point with a 4 and 3 victory over Fredrik
Nilehn.

With
both Scottish pairings down in the morning foursomes, it was Syme and
partner Craig Howie’s superb comeback from three down with six to play
to win at the 21st which proved the turning point, after Bob MacIntyre and Sandy
Scott went down 3 and 2 to their Swedish opponents.

Grant
Forrest was rested for the foursomes having “not felt great” in the
morning, but he came flying out of the blocks to give the Scots a 2 – 1
advantage with a 5 and 4 win over Adam Blomme, while MacIntyre held on
for a crucial one hole
win in the top singles match over Oskar Berquist to push the team
towards victory.

Syme,
who only dropped half a point during another excellent week, was always
in command of his match and the Drumoig man gave Scotland the title for
the second year in a row by ending his match on the fifteenth green.

Craig
Howie, also undefeated in the match play stages, was all square after
16 as his match was declared a half, with Nairn’s Sandy Scott also
finishing all square in the bottom match.

Jubilant
national coach Ian Rae, who has now overseen Scotland’s success in five
of their European Team Championship titles, was full of praise for the
players.

“The
team have been superb all week. The spirit in the camp has been
excellent and the players have gone out and performed so well in each of
the three matches.

"To win back-to-back titles is a great achievement
and the players should be
really proud of the way they’ve prepared, performed and worked
together.

“It
was a tough start this morning but Connor (Syme) and Craig (Howie) were
awesome in turning their match around after being three down with six
to play. That win was huge for us and gave the boys momentum going into
the singles.

"Grant
Forrest wasn’t well this morning, but he played superbly in his match
which gave the rest of the players the spark this afternoon.

“We
have strength in depth throughout this group of players and they are a
great bunch of lads who won as a team. We have the World Amateur Team
Championship coming later in the season, so it’ll be tough to pick our
three-man team for that,
which is a great problem to have.”

Scotland’s
amateurs last won consecutive titles in 1975 and 1977 when the
championship was played every two years, with Sweden also the beaten
finalists in the latter, while the win over the Swedes was a repeat of
the 1985 final in Halmstad,
when Colin Montgomerie and former Walker Cup player and captain George
MacGregor starred.

Scots boys finish with a win over CzechsElsewhere, Scotland’s boys' team ended
their week on a high by beating the Czech Republic 4 - 1
in Austria to secure seventh spot overall.Sam
Locke and Rory Franssen won the foursomes 3 and 2, and in the singles
Jamie Stewart won at the 19th, Darren Howie won by 1 hole and Eric
McIntosh won by 3 and 2.Marc Watt lost by one hole.

The
Scotland national teams are sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management and
TaylorMade-adidasGolf with fantastic support from sportscotland.

> View full results from the European Amateur Team Championship Final.